Other stuff

Archive for May, 2011

No, not the walk-in-a-straight-line balance (I mastered that in gymnastics when I was six) and not walking-in-high-heels balance (I can sprint in stilettos, and besides I’m barred from wearing heels right now).

I’m trying to balance school and work. And life. And housecleaning and baking and fun. And pies, there has to be time for pies.

I’m trying to balance privacy with sharing. This goes for all mediums of my life, really, but this blog is certainly one of them. Because it’s been quite an eventful week, but most of it has to do with things outside my sweetie, my kitty and the Raj Mahal.

I used frozen rhubarb since I couldn’t find fresh, used the birdie to vent steam, brushed the crust with an egg yolk and sprinkled with sugar. I think the real secret is that I mixed the fruit, sugar and flour and let it sit for a half hour, then scooped it into the pie shell with a slotted spoon. That absolutely kept it from being soupy.

Top it with homemade whipped cream, and I have LITERALLY been licking the plate after every slice. Yum!!!

Every muscle in my body is in massive, screaming pain. I could study for my A&P Muscles test by tracing each individual path of agony through my limbs. Even my FINGERS AND FINGERNAILS hurt, for cryin’ out loud!!

Why? What did I do?

Well, I killed three birds with one stone:

1) I worked on my tan
2) I got some serious, SERIOUS exercise
3) I ripped out about twenty-five feet (and eight years’ worth) of matted, overgrown ivy and weeds.

Owwwwwwww!!!

See, there’s a boxed-in raised bed behind the lanai. I never really went back there, but vaguely assumed that it had the same type of bushes found in the front and along the sides. I promised myself that at some point I would ditch the bushes and replace it with happier stuff, and this weekend was the time.

Imagine my shock when I examined the bed and found nothing but WEEDS. Grasses. Ivy. Most of which had decently shallow roots . . . but those shallow roots were UP TO FIFTEEN F***CKING FEET IN LENGTH!! WTF?!?!?

So I slipped on my gardening gloves, grabbed the hedge clippers, a shovel and a trowel, and started ripping away.

By the time I was 90% done my hands were shaking so much that I dropped the small rose bush (in its pot) rather than gently lowering it. Oh, and it slashed both my lip and my hand as it fell.

Oh well. It was worth it — I’ve got (more) basil, and German thyme, and sweet mint, and spicy globe basil plants all situated. I took my two strawberry plants and my (really tall and healthy! Yay!!) rosemary plant and bedded those as well. I’ve already mentioned the small rosebush (red, of course!). And just for fun I sowed seeds for lettuce, alyssum, poppy and lupine. And hanging by my front door i’ve got some pink zinnias and a small aloe plant.

So — aching painful muscles, a kind of serious sunburn on my lower back, and a garden planted with pretty things and tasty herbs. I’ll take it!!

While Lissa has been languishing with her wounded feet, Mike has really gotten into this distance-running thing. He’d done a 5K on March 5th and pushed really hard to be ready for this 10K.

And so, bright and ungodly early, we piled onto the UCF campus for the Operation Giveback race.

They started off with a host making a speech (punctuated by calls for HOO-AH, which were fine, and once the phrase “very, very hoo-ah,” which was not!) and introduction of the Bionic Heroes participating in the event:

(They tended to use “wounded warriors” or “wounded heroes,” but I like Bionic Heroes better.)

They lined everyone up with the Bionic Heroes in front (they got a five minute headstart):

I captured Mike as he broke from the starting line:

And again as he approached the finish line (marked by the metal latticework you see):

He says, by the way, that I cheered loud enough to penetrate the exhaustion and tunnel vision; he heard me. Along with everyone else in a 10K radius. 🙂

Overall, just a great, great day. I’m so proud of Mike for pushing himself to be ready and SO proud and happy that he did it for such a great cause.

One of my manilla files that I REMEMBER having yesterday went missing. I tore apart my desk, the stacks of file folders, two offices and another desk before starting to page through our file cabinets one by one.

You know where it was?

In the file cart where it was supposed to be. Only I guess when I put it back yesterday I put it BETWEEN two hanging file folders instead of IN a folder. So it had fallen to the bottom and was lying underneath all the other folders.

Ever been immensely relieved and simultaneously FURIOUS at yourself? In my case, it results in suppressed tears. YMMV.

I was driving home yesterday and closing in on my exit when I notice that the car in front of me was … a wee bit wobbly. It gently swayed from one side of the lane to the next, touching the left and right lane markets with loving and regular attention.

I gave him a fair bit of space, ready at any point to dodge around an accident, then gunned it to pass him and exit the highway. As I did so, I curiously glanced over to see what the hell his problem was. Eating and driving? Cell phone? Map? Hooker giving him road head?

Cell phone? Oh yes. He was holding it to his ear with his right hand and driving with his left hand. Unfortunately, his left and was also holding an EXCEL SPREADSHEET propped against the wheel, which he referenced frequently as he drove.

WTF?!?!

I call for an immediate law banning Excel spreadsheets in cars!

P.S. I happen to think that driving like a stupid d-bag is a bad idea. But I also think that one should ticket the result — swerving in an out of lane lines, driving recklessly, etc. — rather than the cause. Some people can talk on the phone, listen to the radio and check their directions while driving safetly. Some people CAN’T. To ban each myriad little doohickey or action that may or may not cause the driver to behave in an unsafe manner multiplies the stupid laws we have on the books for no reason.

Spring semester ended a week ago (A’s in Anatomy&Physiology and Developmental psychology, a disappointing B in Diet and Nutrition) and I thought about having a little cookout to celebrate. I texted out to some of the people i’ve studied with, asking if there was enough interest to start baking. A few people said yes, among them the woman I’m friendliest with, so I set it at Saturday at noon. Nothing elaborate — just burgers, hot dogs and a few other munchies. As of the night before I had one woman who was hoping to come, another young woman who asked if she could come right at noon since she had a 4:30 commitment, and a third woman who said she was bringing four people.

Guess how many showed?

None.

The girl who asked to come at noon texted me at 11:30 full of apologies saying she was still running errands and couldn’t make it. The woman who was supposed to bring four said she was running late. Then, at two, she was waiting for someone to pick up her kid’s friend. Then, at four, she was waiting for her fiancé to change out of his work clothes and eat something. She finally cancelled around 4:30.

Seriously? A bit of WTF, no?

We had a good afternoon anyway — I’d gotten all my housework done early so I spent the afternoon reading and floating in the pool, and Mike’s burgers were delicious — but I was definitely disappointed, a bit hurt, and kind of confused. I mean, I know I’m all old fashioned and conservative, but I kind of thought that when you tell people you’re going to show up — especially when they ask you for a headcount for food and you tell them multiple people are coming — then you, you know, come.

Wednesday night I took Lucifer’s mommy (LM) to the range to conquer her fears 🙂

Remember how I told you she only once tried a pistol? Turns out she only took one SHOT out of the damn thing (she thinks it was a .45) and was so frightened at the recoil that she never tried again.

(There is no such thing as the Right Gun for a woman. Some like big grips. Some like small grips. Some like 9 mm, while others drool over a Certain Gold Cup ACP. I would posit, however, that there IS a Right Gun for a frightened beginner, and that gun is NOT a .45!!!)

Since LM mentioned that the bangs made her nervous, I had her double up on ear protection. Tis left me yelling almost at the top of my lungs during instruction,but whatever, I’m loud; she could hear me 🙂

We started out with empty guns, of course. I went over the safety rules again, explained how semi autos worked (magazine, sights, slide movement etc.) and adjusted her grip. I then had her dry-fire Siguette until she was comfortable. (She asked me to fix her stance, too, but I limited that to taking the arch out of her back and making her stand up straight.)

And then – on to Live Fire! I rolled out a silhouette target with a big green splatter sticker on it to 3 yards. I started out by running ten rounds through Siguito the Mosquito, and I admit I showed off. It was for a good purpose, though — I did the second half of the magazine one-handed … using my left hand 🙂 I told her I wanted to show her that the recoil was soft enough that I could shoot it left-handed and it wouldn’t slam me around. I put one round into the second magazine and had her shoot it. Hooray!!

She worked Siguito through maybe 50 rounds and seemed quite happy doing it. Her aim was very decent — almost all center-mass, and many of them in the 9-ring or closer. We then switched to Siguette (my favorite girl). LM didn’t like this one as much, as it was heavier and had a lot more recoil, but she was still fairly accurate with it. After about 30 rounds, we took Kevin out for a spin and it was FAIL!! LM has rather large hands and she could neither finagle a good grip on it nor pull hard enough to fire a round. In four tries she managed to fire one round. Needless to say, we decided to move on back to Siguito!!

All in all, it was a wonderfully successful range outing. It’s always fun to go to the range, but this was extra … She thanked me wholeheartedly at the end, told me she had a lot of fun, and was so happy and grateful to overcome what she said was truly a phobia.

And then we all loved happily ever after 🙂

This post is dedicated to all the people who have held my hand and helped me overcome nervousness and fear. Pay it forward, and all that!